By Saturday morning, officials said emergency personnel had rescued about 300 people trapped in homes or elsewhere in the city. A local government update indicated that dozens remained trapped late Friday.

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Meet Robert Simmons. Was stuck in his house since last night, when floodwaters began to rise in New Bern. A boat came and rescued him just now. He was sad to leave his father but left with his kitten hugging his neck. Cat’s name: Survivor, Simmons said. #HurricaneFlorence2018pic.twitter.com/vRR3lANDJe

City leaders said there were “three rescue teams who are working around the clock to get into communities to retrieve people.”

Some of the residents impacted by the storm spoke to reporters about their ordeal.

Do you think everyone should have evacuated?

Despite a mandatory evacuation order, many New Bern residents opted to hunker down and wait out the hurricane.

Homebuilder George Zaytoun said he decided to stay put in anticipation of helping his neighbors rebuild after the storm passed. In an interview Friday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” he said he was beginning to second-guess his choice.

“I think we kind of let our guards down,” he said. “In hindsight, yes, I would have probably gotten out of here.”

Though he said he took every precaution before battening down the hatches, Zaytoun said he was not prepared for the amount of water dumped on the city.

“It’s like a bomb has gone off here,” he said. “Everything around us in underwater.”